I've got to say, if we are saving a majority of folks from head injuries- I am willing to sacrifice you.
Gee, thanks.
I might be willing to, as well, if that were the correct dynamic--my life for bunches of others. But it's not.
Of course people should wear seat belts. I wear seat belts. Anyone with any sense wears seat belts. The statistics are compelling. Do you want to make it illegal to have sex without a condom? We can save lots of lives that way. We can save even more if we outlaw fornication. Oh, it's already illegal lots of places, but we could start enforcing those laws. We could make it illegal to use cars. And fly in airplanes. And eat meat or sugar or soft drinks. Or scuba dive.
Mine is a basic libertarian argument. Some things we make illegal--the things where people hurt each other through violence or fraud. On other things, we provide information and give them a choice. I know you're familiar with the term, choice. Well, I'm in favor of it.
If we're going to have laws, the laws should be fair and work for everyone. What would happen if we produced seatbelt regulations that required them to fit everyone but blacks? Or only men and not women? Yes, some kids die from immunizations. But that's not because we designed the immunizations to be safe only for right handed children and then forced the left handed children to be injected anyway. When a kid dies, it's not because that kid was discriminated against. It's because it was a random accident. If we're going to have seatbelt laws, we need to have better seatbelt regulations.
Karen |
